The Donation and Commending Convention for "121 Joint Action
Plan" Against AIDS was held at the Great Hall of the People in
Beijing on Dec. 1, the World AIDS Day. Mr. Khalid Malik, UN
resident coordinator in China and UNDP resident representative,
delivers a speech at the convention. The "121 Joint Action Plan"
launched in March 2003 was sponsored by the Chinese Foundation for
Prevention of STD and AIDS.
The following is Mr. Khalid Malik's speech at the
convention.
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Speech at World AIDS Day
December 1, 2003 Beijing, China
by Mr. Khalid Malik, UN resident coordinator in
China and UNDP resident representative
Honorable Vice Chairman of CCPCC Zhou Tienong,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
HIV/AIDS is a global crisis that despite recent advances in
treatment and understanding requires even more than before, urgent
action on an unprecedented scale. For China, as one of the
countries experiencing rapid growth of HIV infections, the
challenge of combating the epidemic is particularly daunting. China
now has an estimated 840,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. Few of
them have access to treatment and proper care. Most experience
discrimination and stigma. By 2010, if we do not act now, the
number of those infected by HIV/AIDS could go as high as 10
million.
Despite these challenges -- and this is the good news -- China
has made strides in its response.?? Recently at a
high-level panel of the 58th session of the UN General Assembly,
Executive Vice Minister of Health Gao Qiang outlined China's
five commitments of its response to HIV/AIDS, including improving
law and regulations, providing free treatment and medicines to
low-income HIV/AIDS patients and protecting their legitimate
rights
Today, as I speak, senior Chinese leaders are visiting Ditan
Hospital and meeting with people living with HIV/AIDS. Today this
afternoon, the UN is launching jointly with the Ministry of Health
the Joint Assessment Report on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control in
China. The Report is a culmination of a year and a half of close
dialogue on HIV/AIDS between the Chinese government and the UN
system. Building on a comprehensive review of past efforts and
lessons learned, it puts forward recommendations for the future.
These two events are part of many activities during this week all
over China that are trying to promote awareness of HIV/AIDS and
fighting stigma and discrimination.
But, despite this recent progress, we cannot afford to be
complacent. The unstopped march of the epidemic requires us to
redouble our collective efforts.
The United Nations system in China is privileged to be here with
China and with the Chinese people at this critical time in
combating HIV/AIDS. There is a strong partnership with the
government of China in these matters. We are particularly pleased
and encouraged that China's leadership and institutions are gearing
up for what can only be described as a people's campaign to deal
with and overcome this most serious crisis.
Let me highlight some necessary aspects of this campaign:
1. Eliminating discrimination and stigma. All of us here have to
commit ourselves to help people with HIV/AIDS not only live longer
but also fundamentally live normal lives. This requires breaking
the barriers of ignorance and attitudes in schools, in the work
place and at play.
2. Taking the message to the provinces and township levels.
China is large. We have a challenge to reach the million villages
and towns of China. As in the past, China has overcome great
obstacles through its enormous ability to mobilize vast numbers of
people. We are at that stage again, and the UN system in China, in
its modest way is prepared to help.
3. Building on what we know. Globally, the UN takes the position
that HIV/AIDS is a problem that has a solution. Many countries
around the globe are grappling with the same issues. Progress is
possible. The UN's strength lies in helping access such experience.
In China too there are very useful pilot experiences such as safe
needle exchange among drug users in Guangxi, on marketing of
condoms among sex workers in Hainan and promoting HIV/AIDS
awareness in railway stations. In the spirit of late Chinese leader
Deng Xiaoping, we will cross the stream using these experiences as
our stepping stones.
4. Focusing on high risk groups: on drug users, on sex workers
and others. But, also going beyond. Though China remains a low
prevalence country, we also have to recognize that already we are
seeing transmission of the disease in the broader heterosexual
population.
5. On treatment. The breakthroughs in efficacy and cost of drugs
mean that we can and should ensure that treatment is an essential
part of any HIV/Aids response strategy.
And, importantly, as Kofi Annan said in his message: We must
continue to speak up openly about AIDS. No progress will be
achieved by being timid. We need to ensure that we replace
widespread stigma and fear with hope and support. Each and every
one of us can create such hope and provide such support.
Thank you for being here with us on World AIDS Day and thank you
for joining us in the campaign to combat HIV/AIDS in China and the
world.
The following is Secretary-General Kofi Annan's message
on the occasion of World AIDS Day, observed December
1:
Two years ago, the world's nations agreed that defeating
HIV/AIDS would require commitment, resources and action. At the
General Assembly's special session on HIV/AIDS in 2001, they
adopted the Declaration of Commitment, a set of specific,
time-bound targets for fighting the epidemic.
Today, we have the commitment. Our resources are increasing. But
the action is still far short of what is needed.
Significant new funding to fight the epidemic has been pledged,
both by individual governments and through the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The vast majority of countries have
in place broad national strategies to combat HIV/AIDS. A growing
number of corporations are adopting policies on HIV/AIDS in the
workplace. Increasingly, community and faith-based groups -- which
have often taken the lead in the fight against AIDS -- are working
as full partners with governments and others in mounting a
coordinated response.
But, at the same time, the epidemic continues its lethal march
around the world, with few signs of slowing down. In the course of
the past year, every minute of every day, some 10 people were
infected. In the hardest-hit regions, life expectancy is
plummeting. HIV/AIDS is spreading at an alarming rate among women,
who now account for half of those infected worldwide. And the
epidemic is expanding most rapidly in regions which had previously
been largely spared -- especially in Eastern Europe and across all
of Asia, from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean.
We have failed to reach several of the Declaration's targets set
for this year. Even more important, we are not on track to begin
reducing the scale and impact of the epidemic by the target year of
2005. By then, we should have cut by a quarter the number of young
people infected with HIV in the worst affected countries; we should
have halved the rate at which infants become infected; and we
should have comprehensive care programs in place everywhere. At the
current rate, we will not achieve any of those targets by 2005.
Clearly, we must work even harder to match our commitment with
the necessary resources and action. We cannot claim that competing
challenges are more important, or more urgent. We must keep AIDS at
the top of our political and practical agenda.
That is why we must continue to speak up openly about AIDS. No
progress will be achieved by being timid, refusing to face
unpleasant facts, or prejudging our fellow human beings -- still
less by stigmatizing people living with HIV/AIDS. Let no one
imagine that we can protect ourselves by building barriers between
"us" and "them." In the ruthless world of AIDS, there is no us and
them. And in that world, silence is death.
On this World AIDS Day, I urge you to join me in speaking up
loud and clear about HIV/AIDS.?Join me in tearing down the
walls of silence, stigma and discrimination that surround the
epidemic.?Join me, because the fight against HIV/AIDS begins
with you.
(China.org.cn December 1, 2003)